THOMASIAN philosopher and Professor Emeritus Alfredo Co urged Filipinos to use the country’s colonial history as a “springboard” to a modern national identity.
Speaking before the Thomasian community, Co delivered the Discurso de Apertura or the traditional opening lecture of Academic Year 2026-2027 at the Santísimo Rosario Parish Church on Aug. 5.
His lecture, titled “Indigenous Filipino Philosophy: From Excavation to Void to Presencing,” examined the continuing search for a distinctly Filipino philosophy.
Co warned against “intellectual nostalgia” and urged scholars to embrace what he called a “hybrid modernity” instead of clinging to the country’s colonial past.
“This is not a superficial rebirth of what once was, but the first genuine flowering of what we have uniquely become: the vanguard of a new, hybrid modernity that deploys its colonial past as a springboard into the 21st century,” Co said.
He argued that national renewal should emerge through what he described as a “powerful synthesis of becoming.”
“We possess a vibrant, multi-polar identity that refuses to look backward toward a spectral memory, choosing instead to take a courageous stride toward a powerful synthesis of becoming,” he said.
Co also challenged the new generation of Thomasian scholars to become “philosophical legislators” of the future.
Defining a national philosophy now rests with the current generation of Thomasians, he said.
“The task of architecting this legacy is now entrusted in your able hands, where the world will closely witness your capable presencing,” Co told the Thomasian community.
Known to his students as the “Venerable Master,” Co is a leading Thomasian philosopher and sinologist. He earned his doctorate at age 26 and pursued advanced studies in Hong Kong and Paris.
His scholarly contributions were honored through the publication in 2009 of the seven-volume festschrift “Across the Philosophical Silk Road: A Festschrift in Honor of Alfredo P. Co,” making him the first UST professor to receive such a tribute.
The Discurso de Apertura, a University tradition dating to 1866 and adopted from European universities, formally opens the academic year through an inaugural lecture delivered by an appointed senior faculty member following the Misa de Apertura or opening Mass. With reports from Inah Denise A. Manansala, Tatyana Sabeerah R. Maranan and Psalmuel D. Reyes
